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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Clown Car Traffic Jam

At this point there are over twenty candidates running, whether declared or not, for the Republican nomination for President, all of whom are being treated by their party and by pundits as "viable," because they have been elected to other prominent positions, have attracted large sums of donation money (possibly through the patronage of a pet billionaire), or have accumulated a large fandom through right-wing hate media or the Megachurch archipelago. Questions whether they were elected (if ever they were) by nationally representative constituencies, whether their tenure in office (or in any other position of authority) was objectively accomplished, or whether their stated policy views survive even minimal scrutiny by experts in the relevant fields are all, of course, completely disregarded in such attributions of "viability."

The resulting circus atmosphere is hardly surprising -- even without actually thinking through its causes the accumulating experience of each successful wave of Republican presidential dopefuls has been crazier and crazier each time around and so one has to expect it by now. Needless to say, Republicans themselves are worried about the spectacle they are making of themselves by now (that their outdated ugly values and outrageous failed policy prescriptions might actually have to change is never seriously taken up by these Very Serious handwringers, naturally), but even their expressions of concern do little but re-enact the nonsensical spectacle itself. ViaThe Washington Post:

For now, the candidates say they want to avoid chaos. “This whole process is to elect a Republican nominee,” Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, told reporters Friday in Scottsdale. “It’s not to provide a media circus. It’s not to provide entertainment to the masses and to create a show that would be delightfully pleasant for the opposition to watch.”

Of course, the whole reason this garish spectacle of stupidity and bigotry and madness provides an "entertainment... delightfully pleasant for the opposition to watch" is that it consists of killer clowns exactly like Huckabee, none of whom, very much including him, grasp that they are the circus they claim to disdain.